Since Thursday night, January 27, 2011, appeared in Egypt complaints that internet access in the country started to experience interference. The action was deliberate by the Egyptian government, which cut off almost all Internet access and communications to prevent a wave of massive demonstrations, which were still happening on Friday.
According station Al Jazeera news, about 88 percent of Egypt’s internet connection totally paralyzed. Computers in homes, offices, and business places, government offices and even rumored to not be able to access the Internet throughout Friday. The Internet is still able to function in a very limited, such as stock exchange or military facilities.
“This is an action that does not alleged in the history of the Internet,” the statement Renesys, an Internet monitoring firm in the United States (U.S.) in response to a mass blocking internet connection by the Egyptian government.
Time magazine pages reveal how the government or the authorities have the ability to do blocking access. This is what happened in Egypt with crippling internet connections in their countries in response to the turmoil of the people, who demanded President Hosni Mubarak to step-down.
The average individual’s computer to gain access to the virtual world through an internet service provider (ISP) local. Local ISP then connects directly with a variety of similar providers across the world.
When opening a page and write the domain address in the address bar, such as Facebook or Twitter, the local ISP instantly submit any connection to the ISP that is used up so that the view will be directly available on the monitor.
Computers that are connected with the page requested will send a response to a local ISP, which in essence stated, “Yes, we’ve connected. This is the page requested.”
Blocking is also determined on whether the server is active on domain name system (DNS). The computer will be identified by numerical code, called internet protocol (IP) address.
This system will determine whether the access request to a page via the ISP would actually connected or not appear at all. If the DNS server is not working, then there will be no response from the destination pages.
The Egyptian government could cut off all Internet access with enough deadly DNS servers use a local ISP. So, every request to a specific page from a computer in Egypt will not be fulfilled because no DNS servers that facilitate the request. Demand for entry into the local pages in Egypt from any computer abroad will not work.
In Egypt, all ISPs should be subject to government policies, including when to shut down DNS servers that are used for the public. According to BBC news station, one of the leading ISP in Egypt, Vodafone, was claiming that they received instructions from the Egyptian government to shut down their DNS servers.
“Under the law in Egypt, authorities have the right to issue such orders and we are obliged to obey,” Vodafone said in a statement.
The same instructions apply to other ISPs. Not surprisingly, internet access in Egypt paralyzed.
However, cut off the internet network in egypt is almost over for days can interfere with the economic situation in the country. In almost all countries, information technology such as the internet has become an important element to drive the economy.
“It’s just a matter of time before the internet back working in Egypt,” said Sheriff Mansour, observers of the Freedom Watch, as quoted by Wired.com. “Governments also need the internet to drive the economy, investment, and operate,” said Mansour.